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1.1.2-Pendragonslayer
BrickClub! Day 2 (Fantine, Book One, Chapter 2) Does anyone else feel like they’re writing down bible citations when they are quoting Les Mis? Like, for the bible you write down the book, the chapter, and the verse. In Les Mis, it’s Part, Book, Chapter. It’s just a random parallel I’ve noticed, nothing special. Now, I just want to say the same thing everyone is going to say: Monseigneur Myriel is the sassiest, most awesome Bishop in all of France, and probably all of the 1800’s. Like,really, what kind of rich guy gives away HIS HOUSE in the 1800’s? I love how this is so ironic, a Bishop doing kind things and actually helping people. Thanks for writing that, Hugo. The only thing that mildly bothers me is the women in this, but I think that’s because I am, like most readers, accustomed to strong independent women, and the Myriel’s sister and Madame Magloire seem to be just an extension of Myriel. But I’m not really going to go into that because I don’t think I’m qualified to actually talk about this (These are, after all, just incoherent ramblings). The Narrator/POV in Les Mis is really interesting too. It’s like, third person subjective with an omniscient objective point of view. Wow, that sounds really fancy. Commentary Kingedmundsroyalmurder Yes! I’m coming to really appreciate the narrative perspective, for all that it annoyed me last time I started this. It makes Hugo almost a character in his own book and it creates this fantasy that he’s recording actual events instead of creating fiction. Given that gossip is such an important theme in the story I’m wondering if he didn’t pick this POV as a way to remind us that you can’t know everything about someone and what you think you know may well be incorrect. It’s not particularly subtle, but he’s not actually a particularly subtle writer. Safe-is-relative (reply to Kingedmundsroyalmurder's reply) For me, that’s definitely one of the most interesting things so far. I love that its ambiguous whether the story we’re reading is true or just another form of gossip. I think its definitely emphasized in the last line, “We do not claim that the portrait which we present here is a true one; we say only that it resembles him.” Sarah1281 It makes me a little uncomfortable, too, when they both just mindlessly go along with whatever he says (mostly the sister because the servant at least complains when, really, the sister has more room to argue than the woman whose job it is is to do what the bishop wants). It’s characterized as a virtue but to me it just establishes the problematic trend of showing women as being ideal when they shut up and agree wiht the men that they love. Or, more accurately, they don’t have to shut up and agree because they don’t have an opinion that even remotely differs from the men in their lives. It always makes me feel sorry for the sister. I mean, what has she had in her life? She’s just good and deprived for the sake of being good and deprived and, unlike certain other people who do the same thing, she doesn’t even have the shadow of something she needs to redeem herself for! Pendragonslayer (reply to Sarah1281's reply) I agree with that,but at the same time, in the historical context of this, that’s the way that women were treated. And women were supposed to, you know, be obedient to the men in their lives. Like, she seems like she’s happy with her life, and good for her, but she wasn’t given much choice in what kind of life she was going to lead. that being said, Hugo tends to write really interesting, complex female characters, so we probably should be thankful for that. I mean, even these two women have quite a bit of freedom in the way that they speak to the Bishop (who is technically their superior). Sarah 1281 (reply to Pendragonslayer's reply) I do try and keep in mind the time period but that almost adds to the problem for me because it’s not just a few women who are freakishly obedient and lacking in opinions (does the sister actually have any lines that are not a variation on “My brother is always right?”) but all women unless society has rejected them. Even keeping in mind that this is supposed to be a virtue, I have to consciously remind myself all the time that it’s not that the characters are weak-willed and shallow and that it’s another age. I continue to pity them, though, for living in a time when such traits are what were cultivated in them and the only strength they were allowed to show was standing by the men in their life through difficult times. Pendragonslayer (reply to Sarah1281's reply) Yeah, and it’s sad that people were treated like that back then, and that even today there are still traces of that in our society. Unfortunetly, it gets worse for women from here on in The Brick, I think. I think that there are some parts where the sister does actually disagree with her brother, in her words and her reluctance rather than in action. Look at page 24 (The Penguin Version that I have this is on page 24 anyways). Her values, especially about money and status, are different from her brother’s. Despite these views, she still thinks that her brother is essentially a saint, and praises his actions as right and just. It’s not just the sister who has this differing opinion on Myriel’s lifestyle, but his servant as well. They might not be able to express anything in action but they do express it in their words and attitudes.